Donald Trump will present the 2026 World Cup trophy. In Davos, FIFA boss Infantino is enthusiastic - especially about the power of football and the ticket numbers.
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- FIFA President Infantino praised the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as peaceful and emphasized that, for the first time, no Britons were arrested.
- According to Infantino, the upcoming 2026 World Cup should be just as big a celebration; Donald Trump will present the winner's trophy.
- Despite criticism of high ticket prices, Infantino emphasized the enormous global interest with 500 million ticket requests and defended the revenue as essential for football.
Not only US President Donald Trump, but also his buddy and FIFA boss Gianni Infantino took part in a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos. There, the Swiss was allowed to talk about the power of football. First of all, Infantino congratulated all participants for taking part in the "best meeting at this year's WEF".
With the ball in his hand, Infantino says: "This is not a ball. It's a magical instrument that makes people happy." It would make children's faces happy and turn adults into children, Infantino said, passing the ball around the room. "Look at the smiles all around the room. It's fantastic, it's beautiful."
The head of the world football association then looked back on the last World Cup. "Qatar 2022, of course there was a lot of criticism," he recalled. "We had virtually no incidents. For the first time in history, no Britons were arrested during a World Cup. Imagine that! That's something very special."
"It was a celebration, it was a party. And the next one, in the USA, Canada and Mexico, will be exactly the same," Infantino said. We live in a divided world and must of course support peace. As a reminder, Infantino presented Trump with the newly created FIFA Peace Prize at the World Cup draw at the beginning of December. "This prize is awarded annually to recognize a person who promotes a clear commitment to peace in the world." This had caused significant international criticism. After all, the US president had Venezuela's president arrested and is currently threatening to occupy Greenland.
Infantino fires back after ticket criticism
But back to Infantino. The 55-year-old also mentions how football moves the masses. And provides impressive figures. "Normally you get seven, eight, nine million ticket requests. This time we received 500 million ticket requests. That's really something special ... The tickets are not cheap," admits the man from Valais.
But: "We were criticized, I was criticized, because of the ticket prices, because they are so expensive. The main criticism came from Germany and England," he explains. "Now the USA was number one in terms of ticket requests. Number two was Germany. Number three was England. Because everyone wants to come and take part."
US President Donald Trump will also come and take part in the football tournament in his country. Trump will present the future world champions with the golden trophy after the final. The 79-year-old gave a taste of what this ceremony could look like at the Club World Cup last summer. Contrary to tradition, he remained standing on the podium with the footballers for the winner's photo and Infantino had to kindly ask him to come down from the stage.
